Createx

[Dave G.]

Ya 4012 thinner, 4030 additive, then they have 4020 anti blush you can use up to 25% for humid weather conditions. But the 4012 is the main thing.

 

[TransAmMike]

Wow, now with all these additional products to use this paint I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed here.?

[Dave G.]

1 hour ago, TransAmMike said:

Wow, now with all these additional products to use this paint I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed here.?

Nah, one thing at a time. Stick some thinner in there and try that first, might be fine.

[Rodent]

Not sure if I will ever attempt to use this paint, but this thread has turned into an informative resource on it.

[TransAmMike]

It sure has!!!?         And yep Dave, gonna start with just thinner.

[StevenGuthmiller]

9 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

Wow, now with all these additional products to use this paint I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed here.?

I'm telling you.

Just bite the bullet, buy some "good" Scale Finishes or MCW paint and you'll never look back.

 

 

 

Steve

[TransAmMike]

Steve G you're probably right. It may come to that.  But I've started down this Createx road and even if the Cutlass doesn't get painted with the Createx, I'm gonna try some more experimenting with it for now.

[Kit Basher]

46 minutes ago, TransAmMike said:

 I've started down this Createx road and even if the Cutlass doesn't get painted with the Createx, I'm gonna try some more experimenting with it for now.

Hang in there Mike. Once you get used to this stuff I think you will like it.

Edited November 12, 2020 by Kit Basher

[TransAmMike]

So you've used Createx Hugh?

[Dave G.]

MCW lacquer will knock your head off if you aren't prepared to shoot lacquer. It smells just like the stuff I sprayed in 1/1 back in the 70's and 80's. You really need a respirator or at least an R rated mask good for chemical/solvent particulates but 4 coats looks great, ready to buff up in a day or two with no clear coat. Being acrylic lacquer ( solvent based) it's a harder surface than nitro lacquer or Tamiya acrylic to buff. FWIW.  On a nice day you could shoot it outdoors though.

I see the Createx paints as something good for custom car builds, maybe a hot rod but not factory stock paint. And factory stock metallics are very hard to custom blend yourself. I was very close on my own blend of the solid Washington Blue, the MCW I got is dead on but actually either would work on an overall paint job for the Model A. But that's not the case with metallic paints unless you have the actually blending formula to mix from and the right metallic flakes in that portion of the blend color.............. I shot 1/1 for 30 years and metallic paints even then could be hard to panel blend. You get a different reflection of light from different angles if the formula is off just a little bit. In fact even a little too much thinner could have the metallic sheen appear silvery in golds. As base coat clear coat systems came in and ultimately took over, then color match reading software, this became much easier and a kid right out of voc school could become a good color match expert in a body/paint shop with mixing equipment.. Kids are great with computers and the mixer/blending is computerized. No more hand timing of tints from mechanical mixing machines. From what I understand, Mike at MCW has acquired the computerized equipment. His blends should be exact matches. Not sure how Scale Finishes does theirs. We know they are using acrylic enamel. I saw where MCW  would soon be offering alcyd enamel and has it but not up on the site yet.

Why am I saying all this ? I don't know just gabby today.

Edited November 12, 2020 by Dave G.

[Kit Basher]

9 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

So you've used Createx Hugh?

Yes, I've done 6 or 7 cars with the AutoAir variety. The first one was horrible, and I still have more to learn, but the last few have come out pretty good.

[TransAmMike]

The AutoAir was my first choice but my HobbyLobby didn't have it so I wound up with the regular pearl in the gold I wanted.  Today seems like a good day temp and humidity wise to do some more experimenting.

[Dave G.]

1 hour ago, TransAmMike said:

The AutoAir was my first choice but my HobbyLobby didn't have it so I wound up with the regular pearl in the gold I wanted.  Today seems like a good day temp and humidity wise to do some more experimenting.

Exciting ! Let us know how it goes.

 

[TransAmMike]

I did get to do some practicing/experimenting today.  I mixed 5ml of the gold and started with 1ml of the 4300 thinner. Before I could get any decent flow with my Paasch HL I had to add another 2ml for a total of 3ml of the thinner to 5 of the paint.  It was going pretty good until for what ever reason it wasn't. I kept adding air pressure but still nothing, just air flow, no paint .Just stopped spraying even though I kept cleaning the nozzle and tip. So I decided to change to the #3 tip from the #5. What do ya know, it was spraying good again. I did add a couple more drops of the thinner and some old retarter I had.  Also seemed to spray best at 25 psi.

Any thoughts on why the paint stopped coming out the air brush even when I cleaned every thing and tried again?

[Kit Basher]

In one of my earlier attempts, I had a similar problem. It was not a case of the paint drying in the tip of the AB, it was actually congealing inside the brush. I had to soak the AB in lacquer thinner to get all the gunk out. That's when I found that the 4030 has to be thoroughly mixed with the paint before adding any thinner.  Since you didn't use thinner, it sounds like there is a similar issue with using 4030 alone. As mentioned before, the 4030 is not a thinner, it is more of a retarder/flow enhancer.  I would suggest getting some 4012 thinner and using that as a thinner, with no 4030. The 4012 is available at Hobby Lobby, at least the one I go to. That mix should spray well with no clogging. If you find that you're getting uneven covering or fisheyes etc., then maybe add some 4030 to your paint- mixed well before adding thinner!

To give you a starting point, here is the recipe for Pearls/Metallics from the Createx Hard Surface Application Guide:

Mix 4:1 paint to 4030 balancing clear.

Thin 5-10% by volume with 4012 thinner.

Allow 10+ minutes for paint to acclimate.

Airbrush with 0.5 mm tip at 27-33 psi.

Createx recommends spraying these paints in very light coats, with no one coat giving full coverage. Since it dries so fast, it doesn't take long to spray 4 or 5 coats, and get full coverage.

I know it sounds confusing, but if you follow the directions, it works!

[Venom]

I haven’t read every post on this thread, so forgive me if I reiterate something. I just wanted to mention that I just started using the Createx colors and clear over the summer. Some of what I used in mixing my colors was  7 year old Auto Air colors which I understand are the same company as Createx. As far as the Createx Wicked Colors line is concerned, I’m thinking it is simply their higher quality stuff based on the price jump from the regular Createx colors. The only color I had disappointment with so far has been the regular (not Wicked) Createx satin black. It took me a lot of very light coats before I coul get it opaque enough, and then when I was done and let it dry a couple days it would come off down to the bare plastic when handled with bare hands. The parts I was painting were undercarriage parts, so it wasn’t a huge issue as it would have been if I were painting the body...However I was able to solve the problem by spraying over the black with the 5620 clearcoat and 4012 reducer combined as it gave it a nice durable shell.

One thing I want to stress is the learning curve. When I first started spraying this stuff I really panicked and struggled a lot, mostly with the clearcoat. I’m using the 5620 gloss clearcoat with the 4012 reducer. I kept expecting it to come out more glossy, but it would always dry to more of a satin finish. At first I hated it, but then after using some good patience with wet sanding and polishing I came to realize that it’s near impossible to screw it up in the end. The car I’m currently working on is a gold Ford GT40 and I was able to polish the clear out to a perfect high gloss. Albeit, some cars, especially vintage models look better with a less glossy sheen, so all in all I think the 5620 is awesome stuff if you have the patience for it. Getting the best mix of clear/paint plus reducer is going to come down to spray time and trial and error. I’ve been mixing my paints to be the same consistency as whole milk with great results. The clear I start out diluting with the 4012 just like the bottle says maybe only deviating by adding a few extra drops to the into airbrush.

I have had some clogging where I had to break down the entire airbrush and clean with Windex, especially with the 5620 clear, even having to do a bit of scraping with a sewing needle, but I’ve accepted that this is just part of the deal and whenever I’m not going to be using the brush for a day after using the clear, I break it down and give it a thorough cleaning with the Windex. I’m using an Iwata Eclipse airbrush, and so far it cleans up well using this method.

Below is a pic of the first model I painted entirely using Createx and Auto Air colors and clearcoat and then doing some polishing. After wet sanding I used Macguires Micro Scratch remover followed up with Turtle Wax Super Hard Shell. Then cleaned out all the wax from all the little crevasses with water and a tooth brush... Hope this helped at least a little.

 

[Kit Basher]

8 hours ago, Venom said:

 

That Cobra is gorgeous, Josh. What color did you use?

[TransAmMike]

Thanks Hugh and Josh, I actually mis-quoted on the thinner. I did use the 4012 thinner not 4300.  

Thanks guys for the extensive help you're providing.  I wanna try some more today but have to go off for most of the day?

[TransAmMike]

1 hour ago, TransAmMike said:

Thanks Hugh and Josh, I actually mis-quoted on the thinner. I did use the 4012 thinner not 4300.  

Thanks guys for the extensive help you're providing.  I wanna try some more today but have to go off for most of the day?

And Josh, I forgot to tell you also, great looking Cobra. May I do need to try that clear too. 

[Venom]

3 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

And Josh, I forgot to tell you also, great looking Cobra. May I do need to try that clear too. 

Thanks Mike... So I guess in short what I’m saying about the clear is that it is very workable and forgiving. So even if you don’t get the results you expected from simply spraying it, it is quite polishable.

[Venom]

7 hours ago, Kit Basher said:

That Cobra is gorgeous, Josh. What color did you use?

Thank you Hugh. I used Auto Air Pearlized Metallic Blue and added Auto Air Aluminum Base and very small parts of Createx Black,(non metallic), and just kept doing remixes until it looked like what I perceived to be Guardsman Blue... The stripes are just pure white with a tiny bit of Lemon Yellow added.

Edited November 13, 2020 by Venom

[TransAmMike]

Went to Hobby Lobby today for the 5620 and they didn't have it. In fact , there wasn'nt even a spot on the display rack for it. I did get the 4030 to try tho. I did read that the 5620 is semi-gloss.

My next question,  Josh you mentioned it can be wet sanded.  I didn't think you could do that with water based acrylic.

[Venom]

Mike, do not wet sand until after you have applied clearcoat. After 48 hours the clear cures to where water no longer has the ability to break it down. You can, however, still break it down with Windex I believe.

[Venom]

If you really want to be safe, give it 5 days to dry.

PS: The 5620 is the only waterborne clear I’ve ever used, so perhaps this is not true about some other waterborne clears.

Edited November 13, 2020 by Venom

[TransAmMike]

So if there is any imperfections what do you do before clearing? Also, if there is some roughness in the color coat will the clear coat give it some correction??